The Iris Network
by turquoiserainlilies
Summary: He's a gamer. She's the Queen Bee. Percy struggles with unwanted fame from his father. Annabeth can't forgive her best friend for falling in love. Living miles away doesn't stop two people's fate from meeting, after all, the best thing to fall in love with are someone's words. AU!AH.


_Story Name: _The Iris Network

_Author: _turquoiserainlilies

_Disclaimer_: do not own pjo or hoo

_Summary: _He's a gamer. She's the Queen Bee. Percy struggles with unwanted fame from his father. Annabeth can't forgive her best friend for falling in love. Living miles away doesn't stop two people's fate from meeting, after all, the best thing to fall in love with are someone's words. AU!AH.

_Chapter: _1 of 22

_Characters introduced: _Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Sally Jackson (mentioned), Poseidon Jackson (mentioned), Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Bianca di Angelo (mentioned)

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prologue ii

new york city 11/27/11 11:11 utc-5

_percy jackson_

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New York City was already beginning to show signs of the approaching winter in its temperature. Percy Jackson had to bundle himself in three layers of clothing before headed outside, shirt, hoodie, and _parka_. Her mother insisted on it, though he was sure that his best friend Grover Underwood would laugh at him for wearing a _parka_.

Sure enough, G-Man was waiting outside in his old pick-up truck and texting someone. When he looked up. His face strained with laughter.

"Take your best shot." Percy said, flat faced and unsmiling. "Come on, I know you want to say something."

Grover's face was pink, "It's…orange."

"And we're going to a video game convention, I doubt that it'll make much of a difference in my coolness." Percy rolled his eyes and pushed Grover aside to get into the passenger seat. Grumpily, his friend walked on the sidewalk to the driver's side. When seat belt-ed and car key-ed, Grover didn't press on the gas.

"You sure you can go?" He asked.

Percy sighed. Grover was always a little reluctant, especially when it came to this subject. "I don't care if my father wants me to hang out with you or not, I'm _going_."

"Your mom let you?" Grover played with the tree shaped keychain on his car keys, "I mean, she's never mad at you, but who wouldn't be scared of your dad?"

"He's no dad to me." Percy said plainly, "Just drive."

Grover hit the gas and sped down the road. New York traffic was horrible, but none as worse as today, especially the area they were travelling to. This neighborhood was usually deserted except for huge warehouses, it just so happen that one of these warehouses is in use.

VidGameCon is a convention that hits various cities (usually rotating between the big ones, New York is a huge hit), hosted in a different town every few months. It is usually during a holiday so that people have time off to enjoy it.

This year it is during Thanksgiving. The event was no less spectacular. Many games releases happening in one explosive day. For Percy, that's like Christmas coming one month earlier. He got a little pamphlet from one of the employees detailing the entire out convention. It was a little hard to pick which one to go to first.

"I need to get the new _Harold Peterson: Flame Bird's Council_." Grover pointed it out as soon as they got in, while Percy is still taking in the hugeness of the place, "Or maybe the _Quenching Quell_. That sounds stupid though…"

"Dude, shut up for a moment." He patted Grover on the back, and made him look out at the displays and displays of buttons and toys and posters of every single game made possible in the _entire world_, "We're here, _VidGameCon_."

"Easy on the emphasis." Grover shrugged off his hand, "Yeah, we kind of are." He smiled never the less. Percy was on the process of saying something about that new _Sherlock Holmes _adventure game he'd been dying to try out when a stare caught him in the eye. Now that he mentioned it, there was _a lot _of staring going on. Not obvious, but just little glances to his way that still were no way in hell subtle.

"What's going on?" He said uneasily, though he had a pretty good idea on the attention.

"Didn't think the gamer community was this huge about business news." Grover mumbled, pushing him further in the crowd, trying to blend in but obviously sticking out, "Just ignore them."

But it's kind of hard to ignore it when the crowd parts you like the red sea. Some girls started giggling at his appearance, one random guy requested a high five, and when Percy when to purchase his common of the _Flame Bird's Council_, the man behind the counter asked for his autograph.

"Just because my father is rich doesn't mean I'm anything like him!" He cried loud enough for a group of acuminating gamers to overhear, "Now let me buy this game!"

He hated being this irrational, Percy _wasn't _irrational. Yet when the guy gave him the CD, he whimpered a bit.

"Sorry." He mumbled quickly, sighing and returning to his meeting place with Grover, who was holding a huge stack of _Doctor Who _DVDs.

"They had a booth." He shrugged, "Don't really know why though."

Percy looked through his friend's stash of DVDs glumly, "You missed series 4, it's the best one."

"Argh!" Grover cried in frustration. Unluckily that seemed to attract more attention. Percy grimaced at the stares he is getting, especially from this one brunette girl in the corner, by some newbie game display. "I'll be right back." His friend hurried off.

"Great." Percy sighed, slouching on the bench he was sitting on. His good mood, once again, was spoiled by his dad. Why did he have to be _Poseidon Jackson_, owner and CEO of _Trident Industries_. Why did he have to go and abandon Percy and his mom for over a decade? And why why _why _did he want to make amends _now_?

Right, because since Percy's half-brother Triton died a few months ago out of _whatever_, Percy is the only heir. Which means that for once in his fifteen years of living, his father needed _him_, not the other way around.

The brunette was still staring at him. Percy can't take it anymore. He stood up with a grunt and walked over, "What's up?" He greeted dejectedly.

To his surprise, the girl didn't seem all that shocked, "You don't seem too happy."

"Off day." He shrugged. Still, he's got to make an effort to make new friends. That's what VidGameCon is for, right? To find other gamer friends? "I'm Percy Jackson."

"Cool." She replied, though without a hint of admiration or adoration like he's so far heard from everyone, (except for Grover and his other best friend Bianca di Angelo), she didn't even say _I know_, "I'm Reyna Ramirez."

"Cool." He said awkwardly. "Umm…what's that you've got."

She smiled. She leaned on the post and gestured towards the display next to her, "_Greek Fire_, it's a new game, I thought it looked cool because I like Greek mythology."

_Peter Johnson and the Thunder Bandit_. Percy read, that didn't sound half-bad. He picked up the case and started looking around. He wasn't particularly interested in Greek mythology, but there are certain connections to it in his life. His father is named after the god of the sea, while his full name, Perseus, refers to a son of Zeus.

He was pretty sure her mom named him that to piss his dad off, since of the rivalry between Poseidon and Zeus on Mt. Olympus and in real life (Percy's uncle is named Zeus as well). She insisted that it was because Perseus was the only hero with a happy ending.

"That's stupid. I want to be Hercules." He had just watched the Disney movie.

"Hercules is stupid, besides, Perseus slayed Medusa." Sally coaxed.

Eventually he decided that both Hercules and Perseus were stupid names, he'd rather go with Percy. At least his nickname isn't Hercy or Cules or something weird.

He looked to Reyna, her confident posture and her nonchalance words. It was almost as if she…didn't _care _that he was the son of Poseidon. That's good, right? Certainly refreshing between all the annoying clumps of people that started following his moves at school or on the street. There was Grover and Bianca, but he couldn't depend on two friends forever.

"I heard it's good." She said, about the _Greek Fire_ game, "It's a new game too, so you'll be one of the first."

Percy shrugged. While he's got a pile of games to check off on his list already, he was intrigued, and more video game playing means more annoying his father, so he's all for it. "Why not?" He said, picking up a game from the stack and smiled at Reyna.

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_Next Update: December 1, 2013_

_Reviews are welcomed ^_^_


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